I also created a custom google search engine and pointed it at these three sites. This search engine can be found on this blog.

The one thing I am trying to find information is research, reference or case studies about successful high-density eco-villages on ISLAND environments. So far I have found none in any of these three websites, I could have missed something. As I expanded my search to the internet and architectural, social planning, human geography references I found very little on this subject. What I did find was references to building upon what you already have. Nothing on creating NEW villages. And when I looked at the village concept it pointed toward FIRST building density at the islands port (in our case, snug cove) and secondary or tertiary villages at major crossroads. This also seems to be the most natural and proven approach to densification of islands.

What I am looking for is the references that people are using in regards to building high-density sustainable villages on ISLANDS. I believe our being an island is a important factor in deciding the location of such eco-villages.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks.

As an active contributor to this wiki I feel I have benefited greatly from contributing. As a contributor I believe I have learned more than any individual content consumers (though I have no data to back this up, its just a feeling). I have come to believe that contributing to OER is the best way to learn from OER. It is the act of finding existing OER and reusing it or building upon it. If the OER doesn't exist for your chosen topic, then you have the opportunity to learn and build a new piece of OER.

I am currently involved in more than one discussion about how to encourage people to collaborate in the creation of OER. This is an interesting subject for I believe a number of factors impact OER collaboration. These factors are;

OER saturation

Licensing models

Platform

Localization

How these factors impact the growth of OER is best described within what I see as the OER roadmap. The roadmap has four phases;

Build-up - saturation of the subject areas from both an access (bandwidth, connectivity and platform) and localization (culture, language, etc.) perspective so that re-use is all that is left

Reuse - deepening the accuracy and diversifying the learning approaches and through a licensing approach (CC-BY-SA) that encourages reuse

I still see OER at the very beginning of the build-up phase. And given the solitary preparation methods many teachers already use, it is still a long way off to have saturation. I do believe the day will come. The other three are currently being worked on, but are dependent upon completion of the first to become mature.

License Scheme

Disclaimer

All views expressed on this site are my own and do not represent the opinions of any entity whatsoever with which I have been, am now, or will be affiliated. They are views created by my many years as an IT professional and, more importantly, an enterprise architect responsible for building large and distributed systems.